Strongman Murals

An homage to the roots of fitness and weight-lifting.

For Lift Performance Centre,
2015

Lift Performance Centre approaches fitness with a powerful blend of tradition and innovation. The team recently commissioned me to paint two sets of classically-styled murals in homage to the roots of fitness and weight-lifting, and to inspire their members.

After avoiding the extraordinary minefield of motivational fitness clichés we arrived at a suite of designs referencing the heyday of fitness junkies, 1900s strong men and women, but with a good nod to Greek mythology. Each mural complements its area of the gym floor, exemplifies correct sporting technique and tell's a story for the women and men who go there to train. The titan Atlas kneels at the edge of the earth, bearing the planet Uranus on his shoulders. In the centre of the high performance weight-lifting area stands Milo of Croton, an Olympian from 600 BC who decided he wanted to lift a bull. When at first he failed he bought a calf and carried it every day as it grew into weighty adulthood – whereupon he could lift said bull.